That's good, but shouldn't you use a more passive agent? Because the "love of my life" is actually the "lovee" you mean, not the "lover" that is the one who is speaking, the eromenes, not the erostes.
I can se your logic in reasoning this, but the usage of language is ultimately determined by culture. Since Shekh ma shieraki anni and Jalan athirari anni have been established by culture, they would be the most appropriate terms to use. As far as passivity goes, true love, especially between two people, in not a 'passive' thing in the least. A more passive construction might be saved for a sentence like 'I love rutabagas'.
Sometimes, for some reason, the word that would best 'fit the bill' in English simply does not exist in another language, and I think this is a good example. Another, even stronger example of this comes from Na'vi, where there there is no infinitives. So therefore, to say 'I love you' requires the more complex construction Yawne nga lu oeru - 'beloved you (are) to me'. (Of course, these words can be freely rearranged as Na'vi has free word order).
I totally agree with you in these respects.
But you mistake what I said. I'm not saying love is passive, I'm saying that in this case "love of my life" what one means is "the one I love", the "love" as in "the object of my love" which is the person I'm referring to. In this case the noun is "passive" syntactically, because it is "the object of my love" (note that object is the accusative you'd use in "te amo" for latin). That is why this "love of my life" can be easily replaced with "beloved of my life" (note a passive verb). If you use -ak, I think it implies an active aspect, "to ride" -> "
rider" (he who rides), "to guard" -> "
guard" (he who guards), "to love" -> "
lover" (he who loves someone), so in this case, the one saying the words is the "zhilak" and the other... well... the "zhilak-ee" xD
But I agree with you about the culture determining the construction and I agree that "
Jalan athirari anni" and the other are the norm to express this very common expression of ours. Also that each languages can express it in their own way.
Btw: don't we have a way to turn verbs into nouns? Shouldn't we try that? (If we want to use that phrasing, but I repeat I concur that "
Jalan..." is the more common way to express this).
